"I broke the wall"

I know this feeling...the house is too quiet...the kids are being too good and then it happens...someone starts crying.  In this case it was actually more like sobbing and in between the sobs I catch these words, "Mommy, I broke the wall...it was an accident...I didn't mean to...can we fix it?"  She had my attention at "broke the wall."  All I can think is, what in the world?  How could a 3.5 year old break a wall? Surely she is wrong.  As she is pulling me upstairs we find Mr.G in tears on the steps.  I bend down to comfort him and ask what is wrong and Elizabeth answers, "I broke the wall with his head."  WHAT????!!!!  I am never trusting the peace and quiet again, they cannot be trusted!  Grant's not crying too bad and there isn't any blood and I have yet to see this broke wall.  Elizabeth takes me into her room and shows me an outlet cover that is cracked and four pieces are laying on the floor.  My first thought is, phew this is totally fixable and all the drywall is still there.  The wall is not exactly broken just the outlet cover.  The story unfolds and she admits to pushing her brother into the wall, apparently head first.  The scene of the crime is in the corner of her room behind her tent.

My text to Brandon says this: Is it wrong to make EB use money from her piggy bank to pay for an outlet cover she broke using her brother's head?  His response: WOW

My text to my friend said: I am so over this day!

I ask her who she thinks should pay for the damages and she shrugs her shoulders.  I tell her I think she should and she exclaims, "I have lots of money, but I need my Hello Kitty purse to put it in."  She is acting excited and I am thinking how does she not see this as punishment?  I explain she will have to give her money to the checker at Menards.  "Mommy I don't really know how to use money, maybe you could just give me your credit card!"  You can only imagine how pleased I am with this answer.  Second lesson learned: We must teach our children about the value of money and the explain the perks we get by using a credit card and paying it off!!

As it ended up we had an extra outlet cover in the garage and Brandon acted like he stopped at Menards on the way home and bought it and that Elizabeth had to pay him.  He charged her $2, but felt bad and later put the money back into her piggy bank.  I didn't feel bad and would have used those quarters to wash the car, but that's why there are two parents -  balance!

Grant's head is totally fine, not even a bump or a knot.  However it did provide me the opportunity to remind her that Grant's head is special (remember the helmet days) and that pushing can really hurt someone OR the house!